Returning To Colorado Via Beautiful Santa Fe

My sister Susan and I - along with her dog Blackberry - drove from San Diego to Lordsburg, New Mexico on our way home from a California roadtrip, and the next day stopped in Santa Fe, New Mexico, one of the most historic and beautiful cities in the country. Susan and I visited there back in 2018, but it is a place worth coming back to again and again. We stayed the night at a Motel 6 on Cerrillos Road, and the next morning walked around the Santa Fe Plaza, on which is located the Palace of the Governors, under the portico of which Native Americans sell jewelry and other handcrafted items, as seen in the photograph on the left. I still find it mindblowing that it was built in 1610. 

We also walked to La Casa Sena, which is a restaurant where Susan, her late husband George, and I had Thanksgiving dinner a number of times, the entrance of which can be seen in the photograph on the right. Built in 1864, it has an absolutely beautiful interior courtyard. Sena Plaza is right across the street from the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, founded by Archbishop Lamy, who was made famous in the book Death Comes to the Archbishop, by Willa Cather.

Afterwards, we walked up Canyon Road, famous for it's art galleries and restaurants. It is a beautiful street, and can be seen in the photograph on the left. A little up the road is El Farol, a restaurant and bar located in a building from 1835. The last time we were here, we had a drink, with Susan's dogs Blackberry and Tutu, on the dog friendly patio. This time, we needed to head home to Colorado, and had to skip having a drink on that patio. Maybe next trip.

It is amazing to me how many old adobe homes are still standing in Santa Fe, including on Canyon Road, as seen in the photo on the right. They are very simple structures, and many look like they could use some tender loving care, but they have been standing for hundreds of years, and the owners probably feel they will stand for several hundred more. One of these adobe dwellings, the oldest house in Santa Fe and now a museum, was built in 1646. Again, it is just so amazing to have such an old settlement only 6 hours from Denver. What a wonderful place indeed.

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